Snape's Best Memory
by Thirteen Ravens
Summary: Sirius Black was always popular at school because of his good looks and carefree ways, but he didn't realise how popular. SSSB . Severus Snape Sirius Black SLASH Marauder Era. Completed!
1. Snape's Best Memory

The Slytherin Common Room was silent but for the scratching of a quill. A thin-framed boy bent closely over a book at one of the polished mahogany tables, his lank black hair almost obscuring all facial features but for an unusually large nose, which was almost brushing the page as he wrote.

_At precisely 112 degrees Fahrenheit, add two sprigs of Wormwood, thinly sliced. Remove Allium bulb. For a delayed reaction stir potion in a slow anti-clockwise direction three times with an aluminium spoon for three hours' delay, four times for four hours, and so on… If a tasteless undetectable solution is preferred, the addition of three Mermaid's tears at this point is recommended._

The boy smirked and straightened up, his eyes glittering triumphantly. Reaching for his wand he muttered a charm to make the text illegible to none but him.

One trial brewing and his newly invented Potion would be ready.

* * *

"Pass the carrots will you, Padfoot?" 

Padfoot stuffed half a Cumberland sausage in his mouth and scowled. "Get them yourself, Wormtail. Accio's not that hard."

Wormtail put on a pathetic face and a wheedly whine. "Prongs…will you-"

Abruptly the large bowl of steaming carrots lifted from its place on the table, flew across and dumped its entire contents on top of the whining boy's dinner.

Wormtail's mouth twisted. "Well, I like carrots, but…" He trailed off as he looked at the steaming orange mountain on his plate, and the gravy oozing all over the tablecloth.

"-you are too lazy to get them yourself," finished James coolly. "_Time and time again._"

A frown gathered above Wormtail's eyes. "What's with you two today?" He turned toward his last friend sitting diagonally across from him at the table, (or rather, where his last friend should have been – as in his place appeared to be a large open copy of the Daily Prophet, and two sets of fingers.)

"Moony…?"

There was a swift rustling sound as the newspaper was lifted up even higher.

Wormtail pouted. "Why isn't anyone speaking to me? What have I done?"

Sirius put down his fork with a clatter and looked back at his friend strangely. "_You don't know what you've done?_ Moony told me earlier that he saw you slipping something into my drink this morning. What the hell was it?"

Wormtail's mouth hung open, his little eyes widened with shock. "_No I never!_" He squeaked.

James looked haughtily down his nose. "Like you always deny leaving the soap and towels on the shower room floor, Peter. Yeah, we believe you."

"_But…but…_" Wormtail's eyes goggled and he looked away speechless. He didn't put anything in anyone's drink at breakfast time!

_Come to think about it, he couldn't even remember breakfast time…_

Frowning, his eyes wandered over to the Slytherin table and fixed on the skinniest, ugliest boy there, who currently seemed to be staring back across at the Gryffindor table. Their eyes met. Even from that distance Wormtail caught the slight twitch of the boy's eyebrow.

"Snivellus made me do it!" Rushed Wormtail at once, looking pleadingly at his friends. "_I know he did!_"

Sirius snorted. "We haven't been near the Greaseball all day, stop trying to worm out of it."

"Ha ha," scowled Wormtail. "But…" his eyes shot back to the Slytherin, who proceeded to give him a huge smirk.

"Look…Prongs…Padfoot he's smirking! _There,_ he did it!"

Sirius yawned and added finishing touches to his mashed potato volcano, James rolled his eyes. "The little bastard is always smirking Wormy. When does he ever not smirk?"

Wormtail gave his most pleading look. "Well…he didn't smirk when you zapped him with one of his own hexes did he Prongs…?"

James cocked his head to one side, a reminiscent gleam in his eye.

"Well…no…but…"

"We'll get him later anyway, whatever," growled Padfoot. "But we're still not talking to you until you own up."

"If you are going to get him later, Sirius, don't forget you have detention with Professor Sprout at eight," reminded the newspaper loudly.

"Oh…_crap._"

James smirked. "Tut, tut, Padfoot; what did you do to upset old Brussels Sprout this time? It wouldn't be _a certain little doggy_ digging up her vegetable gardens again, would it?"

Sirius shrugged nonchalantly and raked his fingers through his hair. "No. I don't know. Some girl passed me a love letter and I got caught with it."

"It wasn't an ordinary love letter, Sirius," commented the newspaper mildly.

"A _noisy_ love letter?" James smirked evilly. "Come on, tell me!"

Sirius frowned. "No way!"

"Aw, come on…" With a lazy flick of his wand a grinning James had Sirius's drinking glass hovering some ten feet up in the air.

"Get stuffed Prongs! And give me my juice back!"

As Sirius grabbed hold of the end of James's wand, the glass wobbled mid air, and dribbled juice all over Lupin's newspaper.

"Guys…_do you mind…?_" sighed Remus wearily. "For your information James, Samantha Lacey sent that love letter."

"_Ayyyy…whooo,_ Luscious Lacey!" Jeered Prongs playfully, poking Padfoot in the ribs. Wormtail sniggered.

"I don't even fancy her," huffed Sirius. "Don't bloody know why she keeps trying!"

"I know why she keeps trying," sniggered Wormtail.

Sirius scowled at him. "Shut up. And I'm still not speaking to you." He stuck his spoon into the centre of his mashed potato volcano and stood up. "Come on Prongs, let's go back to the Common Room."

Prongs frowned. "But we haven't had pudding yet!"

"Yeah, well I'm not that hungry," he replied vaguely. "I might go outside actually, get some fresh air. It's a bit stuffy in here."

Prongs shrugged. "Yeah fine, whatever. See you in the Common Room later then."

Wormtail watched Sirius leave the hall and then turned his gaze back on his friends. James wasn't even looking at him, and Remus was still buried in his soggy newspaper. Twirling his dessertspoon, Peter let out a long sigh and glanced back across to the Slytherin table to notice an empty space. Snape had disappeared.

_Someone else obviously wasn't hungry enough for pudding either._

_

* * *

_

Sirius walked purposefully along the corridors, nothing on his mind but getting outside for some fresh air. He had a really weird headache, and he was sure that bit of Cumberland sausage hadn't agreed with him…

He reached the main Entrance Hall and stopped dead. There was the door to the outside.

_And there was the door to the Slytherin Dungeons._

Sirius frowned and shook his head. No, it was outside he wanted. _Outside._ Why the hell did he want to go into the dungeons? The dungeons were even stuffier and stank of a thousand sweaty potions ingredients. Like Snivellus.

Sirius breathed in very slowly, his eyes dilating.

_Snivellus._

_Smirking Snivellus_

Unbidden and unwanted, Sirius felt a pleasurable tingle run all up his back in thinking of the name, and then abruptly about _something else less innocent,_ which he instantly countered by an outward exclamation of disgust.

"Ugh! Merlin's bollocks, I'm going mad!"

There was a dry snicker behind him. "_Are you really, Black?_"

Sirius spun on the spot to come face to face with the very person he least wanted to see right then.

"Speak of the devil…" He growled, but even as he said these words he could feel an undeniable sense of excitement coiling around in his stomach…and as it was coiling, it was growing…

"And he shall…_come?_" sneered back Severus Snape.

Sirius closed his eyes and groaned as the coiling in his stomach was increasingly joined by the thudding of his heart, and then finally, scarily, a certain _movement_ in his trousers.

"I'm going to absolutely kill you for this Snape," moaned Black.

Snape quirked an eyebrow, his eyes agleam with obvious amusement. "I daresay you would, Black, but unfortunately this particular potion tends to have the unfortunate side effect of memory loss…"

Sirius fought to control himself. That voice. That voice…it was so sarcastic….sexy… _Undeniable, irresistible…._

His eyes snapped open and looked straight back into the eyes of his tricker. And as he stared, and the boy stared back he recognised the look in his eyes for what it was.

_Passion._

_Oh horror of horrors, was it possible that Snivellus Snape fancied him?_

"_So…_" whispered Snape. "Now we are on the same wavelength…where would you like to go tonight?"

In spite of all, Sirius found himself finding the question rather funny. "Go? _Go where!_" He barked.

Snape sneered. "Well, seeing as you are currently so…helplessly infatuated with a _queer…_" he spat out this word as if he hated it, "it won't do for us to loiter anywhere too public, would it? Imagine what would happen, Black, say, a certain pack of Gryffindors roved past…?"

"Outside then …" groaned Sirius, trying his best to quell the ridiculously hot passion, which was bearing down on him like a herd of stampeding Hippogriffs.

Snape smirked and essayed a mock bow. "After me."

Snape turned abruptly toward the main doors forcing Sirius to follow, and deal with the murderous task of fighting the urge to take a run and jump at the boy's sexy arse.

The huge main door creaked open a crack, and a spatter of autumn rain slanted in, wetting the floor tiles. Snape scowled.

"It's still raining."

Sirius cocked an eyebrow and shrugged. "_So?_"

Snape stared back at him uncertainly, then, at noticing Sirius's obvious disappointment, his smirk returned.

Sirius managed to follow Snape outside a short way down the side of the castle wall before he could hold back no longer, with a quiet moan he closed the gap between them and outstretched an arm. Snape jumped slightly as Black's fingers touched his shoulder, but he didn't pull away. Sirius circled him and moved closer.

"Take my hands," he breathed quietly. Snape did.

The two boys stood face to face, their chests touching, their arms entwined. Nothing but the dull lamplight in the darkness. No sound but the pouring rain.

"How long have you wanted me?" breathed Sirius finally.

The other boy was silent a moment, almost hesitant. "A year."

"_A year!_" Sirius didn't know whether to be astounded or horrified. He looked down at the Slytherin, his hair even lanker looking than ever now it was getting wet. The raindrops, snaking slowly down his arched nose. They stared at one another again.

Suddenly and unpredictably Snape grabbed hold of him and hugged him tightly, so tightly in fact that Sirius felt the very breath was knocked out of his lungs.

He reeled in a sort of shock and wonder. It was unbelievable. The skinny little Slytherin everyone hated was in love with him. Yet for all his dirty innuendo he was hesitant, _almost afraid._

Well, Sirius knew for sure, with the Potion raging through his senses, that he was not. Bending his head down, he placed his hand gently on the side of Severus's face and guided him into their first rain-soaked kiss.

Sirius discovered that Snape was neither a great kisser nor a passionate kisser, but the hardness pressing against his upper thigh told him it was due to a lack of practice and confidence, rather than desire. Sirius began to feel the boy's shoulders with his other hand, bony and angular under the soaked robes, and then gradually slid his hand right down his back to his arse, feeling Snape shiver excitedly under his touch. Sirius felt his excitement mounting still more as the other boy pressed forward and began to rub against him. And then even more as the other boy began to breathe more and more heavily.

And then finally…

"_Black…_" gasped out Snape.

Sirius broke off the kiss for a moment as a breath of excitement caught in his throat. Snape stood back, panting shakily and began to fumble with his robes. Sirius copied him.

_This was it._

Sirius closed his eyes and waited, listening to his pounding heart and the pattering of the falling rain.

And waited.

_And waited._

"Snape…?"

No reply.

Sirius opened his eyes just as the castle door thudded shut.

* * *

A/N: Please review or comment - this is my first bit of SS.SB slash ever, so slightly nervous and I would love to know how I did! I am planning a sequel already, called "About a Boy." :o) 


	2. About a Boy

**A/N: I am so, so sorry to keep everyone on tenterhooks for so long. Thank you all so verymuch for your reviews: here's the second part of the trilogy...**

* * *

**Part II : About a Boy**

One hour later and he was still quivering with a kind of self-loathing. But the more he reasoned the more his old hatreds and ways crept back into his heart, giving him strength.

Just an hour ago, the young Slytherin had shot through the double doors, fled across the Entrance Hall, heart thudding, legs quivering, eyes threatening to spill tears. An entire year of pent-up frustration and a week's worth of illegal brewing had led to nothing but a clumsy and humiliating display of weakness.

About a boy.

Severus glared down at his filthy excuses for fingernails. Black was lucky to walk away from it all knowing nothing. _How fortunate for him that the potion's potency will fade and take his emotions with it._

The boy who so publicly and brattishly rejected his bloodline, ungrateful to have a family of such ancient lineage. Snape's brows knitted as a memory of his father flitted through his head, stumbling noisily about in the kitchen, home from watching football down the pub…

He gripped the desk hard._ There were no tales of his parents that his housemates wouldn't scoff at. Nothing but the shame of a snapped wand and the battles of alcoholism._

Snape quickly forced himself to block those memories and return to thinking about _him._ His obsession for the boy had been getting steadily worse over the past year. The crafty glances growing into crafty stares, the thinking about him, the stalking, the dreams…

The dreams… 

There was no known potion to cure lovesickness that didn't have side effects. Obliviation was too extreme. In short, Snape knew he was trapped with his dreams of an arrogant idiot of a Gryffindor who would never love him back.

He closed his eyes.

_The feel of his fingertips touching his cheek, the chill of the rain, the sound of his breathing..._

Snape felt his cock beginning to stir, yet again. _Oh, he was an idiot to have given him that potion_. The reality of actually hugging the boy he had desired for so long had actually made it all the more unbearable.

He gritted his teeth together as humiliation washed over him again. _Oh yes, above all secrets he would be definitely taking this one to his grave._

"A Sickle for your thoughts," whispered a voice close to his right ear.

Caught off guard, Snape grabbed for his wand and whipped round to face the speaker.

"GE-"

He stopped mid-snarl as he recognised the unmistakeable form of Lily Evans staring amusedly down at him.

"You're rather jumpy this evening; done something you shouldn't have?"

"_I damn well told you not to sneak up on me!" _he hissed. _"Or did you want me to send something nasty your way?"_

Lily's expression lost none of its humour; in fact she appeared quite immune to the boy's acid temper. She placed her bag on the table and began pulling out her school books.

Snape glared at her disgustedly as if she had gone quite mad.

"What the hell are you doing?" 

Lily raised a cool eyebrow. "Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but Slughorn set us a research project together, didn't he?"

The boy's expression was unreadable for a moment, then it darkened.

"I'm perfectly capable of working on my own," he muttered cagily, narrowly eyeing the Gryffindor's now teetering pile of Potions books. One title, he noticed, did not belong to the library. In fact it looked rather rare…

"No harm of working together, though, is there?" She replied simply. "After all, I apparently have _the instinct_, whereas you have _the knowledge_. It all makes perfect sense."

The boy, for whatever reason, chose not to respond to this. He sat silent for quite some time, hunched awkwardly over the desk – eyes downward, but occasionally snatching a glance at the unusual Potions book out the corner of his eye. Lily chose a seat adjacent to him, rather than opposite, took out a delicate, red-plumed quill, and silently began making notes.

They made a peculiar pair; this Gryffindor and this Slytherin. Her - with her bright auburn hair and shining smile; him; the dirty, dour-faced boy with the ragged raven feather for a quill. It was not unlike as if some dazzling little dragonfly had dared to land next to a ugly little spider.

"Look….Evans…" began Snape after some time, his eyes fixing on the book. "I already apologised for calling you…_that._ So leave me alone."

Lily's quill paused mid-sentence and she flushed a pale shade of pink. "You were just angry – I know you didn't really-"

"_Oh, I meant it,"_ returned Snape coolly.

"Well…I'm sure you did – in anger," she added soberly. "In front of your classmates."

Snape's eyes narrowed; he was angry now, but he knew he couldn't stay angry with her for long. And it bothered him how the girl could manipulate him like this. A Gryffindor to boot.

It infuriated him that no one understood him like she appeared to. It seemed that his carefully constructed mantle of misery was visible to everyone but her. Severus was sure Lily Evans would see beauty in a dying flower.

"What do you want?" he hissed eventually, his stubbornness finally defeated, if not his temper.

At this Lily's features seemed to light up. She placed the quill down and leaned forward.

"To work together on this project. To see what _we_ can do."

His natural reaction would have been to recoil and back off from such an offer, but his curiosity on this occasion proved too strong. Severus raised his eyes to meet hers, and saw striking emerald green, honest and clear of any malice. He was highly reluctant to believe it, but here he saw a person who he _might_ be able to trust.

_If he ever allowed it._

"And what were you thinking _we_ could research?" He said slowly.

A hint of a smile flitted across her face as she reached for one of her books – the one Severus had noted wasn't a library copy. She pushed it across to him and flipped it open on a marked page.

"The Draught of Living Death, of course," she whispered.

Severus's eyes narrowed disdainfully. "Persigmon's technique, or another version?"

"_Another another version_," she smiled mysteriously. "I have a hunch that if _this-_" (here she took a scrap of parchment covered in handwritten notes from the back of the book and passed it to him,) "was used in place of the Crow Garlic, and in a much smaller quantity…then, possibly…?"

Snape's eyes flicked warily up at her for one moment, before reading what was written on the piece of parchment. As he scanned it, he narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "_Asphodel mixed with Wormwood?" _he sneered. _"Every idiot knows that's certain to cause instant death!"_

"Well…maybe – but…" Lily swiped the piece of parchment back from her critic's fingers and added another sentence, her hand quivering with excitement as she wrote. She pushed it back to him.

Snape stared at the added words for a few moments, frowned, and then reached across for his quill to write scratchily on the parchment.

"Three drops will probably suffice," he countered gruffly, pushing the note back to her.

Severus felt her eyes resting on him again and felt a touch of unease. No one had ever dared or wanted to work with him before, and even if they had he would have probably pushed them away. He felt happier and safer alone, no obligations…_no danger…_

Slowly he returned his gaze back up to hers. Her eyes were sparkling and alive with the excitement of sharing her knowledge; _and he had made them do that._

Eyes that wouldn't look on James Potter the same way. The Gryffindor boy who acted like the self-proclaimed king of Hogwarts could get everything he wanted._ Except for this girl's smile._

Images of the Marauders laughing and joking together began to fill his mind with anger and jealousy, and he felt a sudden burning wish to spite them all. A few throwaway dark hexes meant nothing now; this little bit of spite could go much further, cause much more damage, and most importantly of all; _wouldn't break any school rules._

His mouth cracked into an awkward little smile.

"Where should we start?"

* * *

He was having a fucking amazing dream. A world-shattering dream. A mind-boggling- 

And then someone had to squeal like a girl and shatter it.

Sirius sat bolt upright and looked around dazedly.

The squeal came again, and then the sound of bed curtains being raked back. Then a thud.

"_Merlin's beard, Wormtail…!"_

Sirius dragged his curtains open, and was greeted by the sight of his dimmest dorm mate blundering about the room wildly slapping himself.

"Ow - Ants!" he shrilled. "Help me! Someone's put ants in my bed!"

Sirius craned his neck to examine his neighbour's bed from head to foot, and snorted. He could see nothing even remotely antlike crawling around.

"What the Skrewt you on about, Wormy? Look!"

Wormtail stopped dancing to stare at his bed. "They're, they're…I…But…" he mumbled, his bottom lip trembling. "Well, I swear there _were_ ants there, Padfoot…"

Remus, as ever, was the last to poke his scruffy head out from his bedcurtains. "And just what was all that dancing and yelling about?" he enquired sleepily.

James rolled his eyes. "No big crisis – Wormtail had another bloody nightmare. He's just fortunate that I had to get up for Quidditch practice anyway."

He stood up, stretched, yawned and disappeared off into the direction of the showers.

Wormtail huffed and mumbled sulkily to himself as he dragged his scattered sheets back onto his bed.

"Well…._that was an exciting few minutes_," muttered Sirius sarcastically, flopping back down onto his bed. _He felt so tired…_

Wormtail grunted as he bent down low to scrabble under his bed. "Have you seen my boots, Moony?"

"Downstairs in the Common Room, where you always leave them, I should think," was the weary answer. Remus waited until Wormtail had scampered for the stairs, before adding dryly: "Unless of course Gavin's put a walking charm on them again…"

Sirius snickered sleepily and rolled over onto his side.

Remus frowned. "You were very tired last night Padfoot."

"Was I?"

"You came back about eight, walked through the Common Room and went straight up to bed."

There was a sleepy pause, and then a half-hearted grunt of a reply.

"And?"

"Well, the thing I'm worried about," Remus continued, "is that you went to bed in your clothes - apparently not noticing that you were soaking wet. I did a quick drying charm, but-"

"Hang on a sec-" Sirius turned over to face his friend. "Did you just say I was _wet_?"

Remus nodded. "Soaking. Like you had been standing in the shower – _or the rain_. Did you go outside and get some fresh air, like you said?"

The dark haired boy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion; as ridiculous as the notion sounded he somehow knew his friend was talking sense.

"I did go outside…yes. I felt a bit groggy at dinner, and…" his face fell impassive. "Then I swore I was dreaming. Well, at least it _seemed_ like a dream – the messed up sort you have when you eat way too many Fizzling Whizbees…Far, _far_ too many Fizzling Whizbees…"

Sirius trailed off and stared vacantly at the bedpost at the end of his bed.

Remus looked back at his friend, a note of concern in his voice. "Do you reckon it might be a Confundis Charm?"

But Sirius wasn't listening. He had now sat up in a cross-legged position, and seemed preoccupied with running his fingertips gently down the bedsheets.

"Er…Padfoot?"

Sirius shook his head stubbornly. "Nope, not Confundis. I was kissed."

"Pardon?"

"_I was kissed. In the rain – we were-"_

He breathed out deeply and turned his head slightly to peer at his astonished friend through half-lidded eyes.

"_But…who_?" Pressed Remus, getting very confused. "Samantha? Elena? Is she in our year?"

"I don't…know…who it was, but…Merlin's balls, if I ever find out…" Sirius snickered devilishly and slumped backwards onto the bed sheets. "I will sure be _teaching them a lesson they'll never forget…"_

As he watched his Dorm Mate groan and self-consciously reach for a pillow to cover up his reaction to the mere thought of teaching the mystery kisser a lesson, Remus Lupin knew that the Marauders were probably heading for trouble.

Not that they were ever _not _in trouble – but still…

* * *

He felt a pleasant shudder go right through him as his hand brushed against someone's hot skin. His smile widened as he reached out again and felt along the muscular shoulder blades and down the bones of their back. The back arched gently in response to his touch, and the owner of it murmured and turned over. 

Snape's eyes snapped open, and there was an awful swooping feeling in his stomach as the realisation of the dream hit him.

Another erection.

As he reached for his wand to cast a quick cleaning charm on the sheets, mixed feelings of anger, shame and guilt raged through his senses. He'd lost count how many times he had got hard that week just thinking about getting close to Black again. His mouth twisted in bitter amusement at a memory of his mother asking him if there were any girls he had taken a fancy to at school.

He lay back onto the bed and gazed emptily up at the ceiling, listening to his dorm mates snoring. _What was he supposed to do now?_ He couldn't ask anyone for advice, as they would invariably ask what the dreams were about…He definitely couldn't go to his Head of House…

Worse still, he still had some of the Libido potion left, and this was constantly nagging at him. He had been too weak willed to throw it, and in a moment of madness had instead run upstairs and hid it in the Room of Requirement.

He turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but one hour and another erection later gave up.

_This was utter madness._

His mouth scowling with a mixture of revulsion and anger, yet his eyes glinting with something else entirely, Severus Snape got out of bed, got dressed and got himself ready for the challenge that was getting from the dungeons to the seventh floor at six-thirty in the morning - without being spotted by either Filch or his cat.

Tonight would be the last time. _Then, no more._

Padfoot pushed the garden peas around his plate until they were in a sort of wavy circular pattern. He had poked a neat little hole in the top of his steak and kidney pudding, but couldn't bring himself to eat more than a mouthful, so he started to feed peas into it instead.

"Waiting for pudding Padfoot?" smiled Remus. "I've heard it's either bread and butter pudding or Banoffee pie today."

Sirius squinted at his peas. "Not interested in pudding."

"Come on Padfoot," remarked James coolly. "You've got to be strong enough to help Moony with his furry little problem in a couple of days. And besides, I really don't want to write home and have to tell my Mum that my best friend's starving himself over some mystery woman."

Sirus went slightly red. "Shut up Prongs. It's not funny."

"And you're sure it's not a love potion?" chipped in Peter.

"Not strong enough," answered Remus. "I've looked up all I can about them. Padfoot would be much more obsessive – remember when Francesca slipped one into poor John Brightwater's juice? Took four people to hold him back, it did."

"And if it was one of those, we'd know who it was Padfoot was crushing over because he wouldn't stop bleating on about her," added James, matter-of-factly.

Sirius glared at his friends. "Cheers guys; good to hear you all discussing me like I'm some potions experiment."

James snorted. "Well, tell us about this girl then! _Merlins, Padfoot; I can't understand how you can be so darn secretive around your best friends!"_

Sirius turned slightly paler. "I told you already, _I don't know who_-"

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah…heard it all before…"

The four lapsed into a moody silence amid the bustle around them. The puddings appeared then, and Wormtail was the first brighten up and tuck in. After a while the sounds of a hall full of spoons scraping on bowls became too much for him, and Sirius stood up, his stomach churning with nervous tension.

James glowered, but said nothing as his friend walked swiftly away from the table. Remus stared concernedly after him, but Peter didn't notice at all.

"Do you reckon we should follow him on the map, to see if he's okay?" enquired Remus, once Sirius had gone.

James paused mid-chew, and looked round at his friend, a glint of mischief in his eye.

"You know Moony; I reckon we should."

* * *

The thin boy stood hunched in the shadows by the castle wall, hood partly obscuring his face, the Winter mist looming all around him, muffling all sound. 

Lifting his head up slightly, Severus watched for shapes in the whiteness, his glittering eyes darting warily.

A sharp crack of a twig to his left. Snape whipped round and squinted into the mist, his stomach doing somersaults.

After that noise the last thing he was expecting was to be grabbed through the legs from behind.

His first instinct was to lash out. His attacker swore gruffly and let go. Severus dropped to the ground and rolled quickly onto his back, wand drawn, to find a familiar shadow standing over him.

"Did I scare you?" grinned Sirius wolfishly.

Snape swallowed, but said nothing. _He felt slightly sick._

Sirius' expression softened, and stuck out an apologetic hand. "Sorry about that, I just couldn't help myself. I won't do it again."

Snape looked up at the boy's hand and paled with the realisation that these meetings were never going to be as easy as the ones in his dreams. He felt struck with a mixture of terror and desire such as he'd never felt before. The desire to just reach out and take hold of that hand…_but also the revulsion…the fear…_

"Okay," sighed Sirius. "If you're not going to get up, then I suppose I'm going to have to come down there with you."

* * *

"James…?" 

"Mm'hmm?"

"I can't find Sirius in the castle at all."

James looked up from his bed. "What about The Shack? Hagrid's? On his way to Hogsmeade?"

Remus frowned as he scanned the layers of folded parchment. "No…no, and probably no. _Aha…._"

"What?"

Remus blinked. "There he is, outside; near the base of the Astronomy tower…"

At the mention of the tower Peter's ears pricked up hungrily. "So, who's he with, then?"

"I…" Remus trailed off. "No one…He's all by himself."

James snickered unkindly. "Aw, poor Padfoot. Reckon his mystery lover's stood him up?"

Remus smiled faintly, still staring at the parchment in disbelief. "Um…maybe."

* * *

Severus watched as the other boy lay down next to him, then closed his eyes tight. He felt his heart hammering with fear, _but this was what he had wanted, wasn't it?_

"Severus?"

The smaller boy paled to hear his name called so hoarsely.

"Call me Snape."

"Okay, Snape," replied Sirius quietly, almost pleadingly. "What's the deal getting me this worked up then not doing anything about it?" He came closer, whispering more quietly. "Am I supposed to toss myself off? You're going to have to explain yourself, because I don't understand."

Severus didn't reply, couldn't reply, his throat was tightening with the fear and he felt he might be sick.

He heard the boy move closer still, until he swore he could actually feel his breath on his cheek. It proved too much; in one fluid moment Severus tensed, rolled away and quickly sprang up. Though it appeared Sirius had been waiting for this as there was a sudden flurry of robes and a flash of light.

The leg-locker curse hit Snape directly on the left buttock and he crashed back down into the undergrowth with a muffled yell.

A second later and Sirius was on top of him. Severus turned, snarling, and lashed out with his fists. The boys rolled over and over in the bushes, scratching, kicking, biting, thumping and punching for all they were worth, and getting totally caked in dirt and leaves.

Then, a surprising right hook from Severus caught Sirius smartly in the stomach, winding him. Unable to continue, Sirius rolled off his opponent, and lay there wheezing. Severus, also out of breath, remained where he was. He opened his eyes and stared upwards into the whiteness of the mist, seemingly closing in all around them.

After a time, Sirius felt his breathing had eased enough. He straightened out, and groaned softly. Turning onto his back, he opened his eyes to find the shadow of a boy's face hovering just above his own.

Then the completely unexpected happened; Sirius found himself on the receiving end of a kiss. A long, raw, passionate kiss that sent shivers down his whole body. When they finally did pull away Sirius found himself looking into black eyes not cold with malice, but aflame with desire.

"Congratulations, Black," sneered Snape rather ferally. "It appears that the old Gryffindor motto - _if nothing else works, try mindless violence_ - rings true after all."

Sirius grinned, as he felt the other boy's cock stir against his leg.

"Shut up, you slimy little greaseball."


	3. The Shrieking Snack

**A/N: So...here it is, the final chapter. An awful wait, but I found my muse at last!**

**One request: If any of you know of any really good Snape/Black fics out there please let me know their names and authors and I'll definitely check them out. Many thanks!**

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

**Part III**

The next morning, a rather wary Remus Lupin accompanied a rather groggy-looking Sirius to breakfast. James was already at Quidditch, and Peter was probably not very far away from him.

Remus took a nervous sip of pumpkin juice and eyed his friend across the table.

"Did you…did you go a courting again last night, Padfoot?"

Remus was so preoccupied in waiting for an answer from his friend he quite forgot to tell the ladle to stop scooping out baked beans until it was too late, and they began to plop over the edge of his plate. Sirius looked up, a slight, but secretive smile creeping over his face.

"And what's got you so distracted and desperate to know, Moony?"

His friend frowned slightly then shot a furtive glance at the Slytherin table. Snape didn't show for breakfast that often, and wasn't there today, which was a blessing. He reached for his glass to take another sip.

"We got a bit more than kissing done this time…she's a real wild animal when you stoke her up, you know…" smirked Sirius flippantly, dipping the end of his sausage repeatedly into his fried egg.

Remus twitched, inhaled some juice, spluttered, and banged his glass quickly down on the table as if it had suddenly grown too scalding hot to touch.

"_Sirius…! I…"_

"Padfoot! Better late out of bed than never!"

Sirius grunted as James strode up and thumped him enthusiastically on the back, all mud-splattered Quidditch robes and scruffy hair. Sirius's smirk lessened still more when the boy leaned over him to nab a few slices of fried bread, deliberately jolting his arm and causing his sausage to slide off the end of his fork onto the table.

"Hey!" he growled.

James raised a cool eyebrow. "Hey, indeed! I think we need a little tête-à-tête later Padfoot, don't you? One where you tell me everything about la foxy lady?"

"Prongs said he won't speak to you again properly until you do," added Wormtail officiously, plonking himself down at the table and stacking up toast and fried mushrooms into a double-decker sandwich.

Padfoot shot him a deadly glare.

"Well, I'm going for a shower now _Moony, Wormtail_ – see you both later," announced James loudly, before sauntering off down the hall.

"Why does he have to be so bloody immature," muttered Sirius. "_Bloody four-eyed idiot."_

He glanced up to notice his quietest friend looking rather pale.

"And what's the matter with you, Moony – you look like you've seen a bloody Dementor!"

Remus rubbed his forehead with a clammy hand and gave a quick sideways glance at Wormtail. "Ah, well. I'm sure it's just my furry little problem again."

"Tonight, isn't it?" Sirius nodded quickly in understanding. Wiping his plate clean with a bit of crust, Padfoot stood and swiped another couple bits of bread and some rashers of bacon, squeezing them together.

"Can't be going hungry during Herbology again, can we?" He winked as Remus caught up with him. Wormtail scurried on behind, his mouth and hands full of toast.

Remus looked back at his friend with a wan smile. _Going hungry during Herbology was probably the last thing on his mind at that moment._

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

"Ah, Mister Black; so kind of you to turn up to my lesson, even if you didn't have the decency to turn up to your eight-o-clock detention the other night…" remarked Professor Sprout crossly the moment she saw the young misfit enter her classroom. 

Black gave his best cheeky smile as he threw his bag on the desk. "I'm really sorry Miss, but something…came up…"

Lupin frowned as he heard James snigger to the left of him.

Sprout put her hands on her hips. "_Is that so?_ Then you will just have to do your detention this lunchtime to make up for it, won't you, Mister Black?"

Sirius Black's cheeky smile evaporated. He shot a sour look back at James, who was still sniggering. "Yes Miss."

Professor Sprout's face went as red as a radish then. "And, Mister Potter, seeing as you find it all so very amusing you are more than welcome to join him!"

"Aw, Miss…"

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

Remus next saw James and Sirius after lunch in Potions, looking in a slightly worse mood than they had before Sprout's detention.

"Old Compost Breath made us do the Mandrakes again," hissed James as he pulled up a stool to the desk.

"Well, you know if you didn't play up in her lessons, then you wouldn't have detentions, would you?" commented Lupin dryly, inspecting his quill.

"Very well said, Remus. Why on Earth can't more boys be like you?" came a cool remark from his left shoulder. Remus turned to just see a head of auburn curls turn away from him. He gave a slight blush.

"Doing anything tonight after lessons, Evans?" called out James after her.

"Yes actually, but nothing that you would know anything about," replied Lily. "It's called intelligent conversation."

"What, about make-up and boys?" smirked Black.

"No, Potions, actually," was the arch reply.

The boys exchanged intrigued glances just as Slughorn shuffled through the door and called for silence.

"Splendid, splendid. Now, I've had a while to assess your individual abilities, and there will be new partners today for a few of you, I think," he huffed.

There was a short pause wherein the Gryffindors and Slytherins blinked, then glowered at one another. It was bad enough getting used to the cross-house pairings as it was, without having to get used to yet another partner.

"Now, firstly, can we have Potter with Henderson, and Avery with Goode?"

"Yes sir," replied James wrinkling his nose distastefully. Jayne Henderson was one worse than a Slytherin; she was an ugly Slytherin. What was more it was obvious Slughorn had swapped him just to move him as far away from Sirius as possible.

James muttered a few choice words under his breath before scraping his stool loudly across the floor toward his new desk, the existing occupant of which was looking equally misanthropic.

"Secondly, can we have Evans with…" Slughorn trailed off as he glanced round the classroom frowning and scratching his moustache. "Odd, very odd. Has anybody seen Severus Snape today?"

"Migraine, sir," grunted Lestrange.

Slughorn frowned. "_Again?_ Ah well; Lestrange, if you go and sit where Snape normally sits now, make sure you tell him I wish him to sit next to Evans next lesson, please."

As a sullen Lestrange got up to move seats, James Potter blinked, aghast. Snape being paired with Evans? _Surely not._

Remus gave a slight smile. "The luck just isn't with you today, is it James?"

James peered across the classroom at Sirius and saw his eyes narrow.

"No," he muttered. "And it won't be with Snivellus either if Padfoot and I catch hold of him later."

Remus stuck close by James and Sirius for the rest of the afternoon, almost too paranoid to let them out of his sight. It was a great relief to him that Snape had failed to turn up for any of their lessons that day. As they loitered about in the corridor after Potions, Lupin took out a text book, he'd rather pretend to read rather than join in the rant about Snape being paired with Lily. As far as he was concerned, Slughorn putting the most able potion-brewing Gryffindor with the most able potion-brewing Slytherin made some sort of sense.

James, of course, would never likely see it that way in a million years, and was still ranting about it in the Common Room after dinner. Remus took care to watch Sirius' face out the corner of his eye, but saw no unusual reactions to the mention of the Slytherin. In fact, Sirius was as savage as usual in discussing the next line of tricks to play on him.

Finally, James was distracted by a member of the Quidditch team about the up and coming match. Remus finally seized his chance and urgently beckoned Sirius forward, casting muffliato around them.

"I saw who you were with last night."

Sirius frowned suspiciously. "Prongs said I was all alone when he found me – so how do you know?"

Remus pressed his lips together nervously and slid the Marauders' map up in his pocket so only the top corner was visible.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "So…if Prongs knew…"

"Prongs knew where you were only because I told him. But I didn't tell him straightaway. I waited a while until-"

"Until whoever I was with was gone, yes…?" Sirius set his jaw and looked down at his quivering friend. "_So, basically, what you're trying to say is you spied on me and know who it is?_"

Remus bit his lip. "Yes. I'm sorry."

He found himself more than a little surprised however when his friend pulled an odd expression and looked away nervously.

Black lowered his voice to a whisper. "Okay Moony…if you really want to discuss this, can we at least go somewhere a bit more private?"

Remus couldn't help but blink repeatedly in shock as his visibly flushed friend beckoned him upstairs into their dorm room and shut the door.

_Did he remember, after all?_

Once the door was shut and charmed, Sirius turned and walked away from Remus and across to the fireplace. He stared at it for as much as a few minutes, fidgeting with his robe sleeves and kicking at the brickwork with his shoe. Several minutes went by with Remus worrying whether his friend was ever going to speak. Then, abruptly, a hoarse question blurted through the silence.

"Do you remember Alex Boyd?"

The question was so unexpected that Remus blinked, and took a few seconds more to answer.

"Uh, yes. He was two years above us, wasn't he? Chaser for Ravenclaw – but left last year?"

His friend nodded and began to pace slowly back and forth, hand in pockets. There followed an even longer silence wherein Remus could see his friend visibly struggling for composure.

"Sirius-"

"I liked Alex," he blurted out suddenly.

Remus' first response was to frown in confusion. Sirius gazed back at him, and once he had read his friend's expression, and thought he understood what it meant, a pained look crossed his face.

"No Moony, I don't think you understand. I meant I _liked_ him."

Sirius watched the realisation of what he had just said steal over his friend's pale face, and suddenly felt a powerful surge of relief wash over him. _He had told someone – finally told someone_. He was terrified, of course, almost giddy with fear, but if there was anyone he could trust to keep this awful secret of his it was Remus.

"I told you I didn't remember anything about being outside the other night, but I lied," Sirius continued, shaking slightly and giving a nervous lop-sided grin. "I did remember something…I know…all this is about a boy. "

Remus felt his friend's' heavy gaze rest on him.

"What I don't know however," Sirius added. "_Is_ _which boy. But I'm sure you'll be able to fill me in on that one, eh Moony…?_"

Remus wiped his forehead; he suddenly felt decidedly ill. "It's getting dark now, Padfoot, are you coming to Professor McGonagall's office with me?"

Sirius frown cleared as he remembered. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about tonight – last month's gone pretty quickly, hasn't it?" Sirius grinned mischievously and put on a whiny voice. "Please Mr Lupin, can Padfoot come out to play?"

"Well, I can hardly stop you, can I?" replied Remus good-humoredly, relieved to have got him off such a scary subject.

As they trudged toward their Head of House's office Remus pondered what his friend had just told him. Technically he was okay with it, but in other ways it scared him. He'd never known a gay person before. He wasn't really sure what he thought about it just yet.

Just before they reached the door Sirius stopped him, an earnest, fiery look on his face. "I might as well tell you this. I thought I'd go outside a bit earlier tonight, just in case he's out there again. Promise you'll keep this a secret, won't you, Moony? I mean, from everyone. James, too. I can tell him everything, but I don't think I would be able to tell him this."

The two boys looked at each other; one slightly more warily than the other.

Lupin licked his lips nervously. "Sirius…it's Snape"

Sirius eyes narrowed and he looked round. "Where?"

Remus began to flush with embarrassment. "No," he whispered, more urgently. "I mean…_it's Snape._ _He's the boy_."

Sirius gave a bark of laughter. "Don't talk crap, Remus!"

"You know full well I don't ever do that, Sirius," replied Remus quietly, looking quite hurt. He pulled the map out of his pocket and handed it to his friend with a weighty look. "And you also know full well this map never lies. Look after it for me, will you?"

Sirius stared as his friend pushed past him and knocked on McGonagall's door. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the words just weren't there.

Raking a hand nervously through his hair, Sirius turned and started to walk blindly down the corridor. As the initial shock wore off though he felt himself getting more and more worked up and angry.

_A Slytherin! _

_Snivellus!_

Eventually he found himself pelting along the corridors at full speed. As he cleared the last corner he narrowly missed careering into James and Peter walking the opposite way. James lunged after him and pulled him back.

James looked over his friend's face with some shock. "Woah Padfoot, what in Godric's name happened to you?"

Sirius didn't reply. He slid down the wall, panting and fuming, his face twisted with rage.

Concerned, James knelt down next to him and noticed the map still clutched in his hand. Guessing that it might be the cause of his friend's anger James took it, dispelled it and opened it up.

As he scanned the layers of paper he noted two things; firstly that McGonagall was taking Lupin to the Shrieking Shack; and secondly that the dot marked Lily Evans was in the library and very close indeed to a dot marked Severus Snape.

"_What in Merlin's name…?!_" spluttered James.

Peter peered round his arm at the map. His little eyes grew wide. "Snape's with Lily Evans in the library? _Ugh, that's gross!"_

Sirius's head shot up at the mention of the Slytherin's name.

"So!" snapped James indignantly. "What are we going to do to get revenge on that little bastard Snivellus tonight?"

Still slouched against the wall, Padfoot looked up and gave his contemporaries a decidedly ghastly, pale-faced grin.

"Oh, don't worry, Prongs," he whispered sinisterly. "I've got the perfect idea…"

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

The two students jumped slightly as the library door banged. The teenaged boy looked round warily and stood up.

"Don't be so jumpy, Snape; nobody ever comes down here near the History of Magic texts; just take a look at the dust on them all; they haven't been read in years!" hissed the girl.

"I know they don't usually Evans; but there's always the chance!" came the forced whisper of a reply.

Evans looked up in annoyance as her project partner went to hide amongst the bookshelves for the second time that evening. _For an intelligent boy Severus Snape really was annoying sometimes!_

When he came back, though, he was carrying a small rectangle of parchment, and wearing a rather quizzical expression on his face.

Lily looked up from her book and frowned. "What's that?"

"Some first year gave it to me."

"What does it say?"

Snape peered at her through narrowed eyes. "As if I'd bloody tell you!"

"Well, okay. Fair enough; don't tell me!" sniffed Lily.

Snape crossed quickly over to his bag and began packing away his quill and parchment. Lily peered up at him curiously. He was looking rather furtive, and dare she say; a little flushed.

"Does this mean I'm to finish the note taking for this chapter then?" she commented dryly.

"You asked to work with me, Evans, therefore you will just have to put up with my terms," was the irritable reply.

Lily slammed the book closed in a cloud of dust, and shot a death glare toward the retreating form of the Slytherin.

"_Well! Thank you very much, Mister Snape_!"

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

Snape crept as quickly and silently as he could along the corridors to the Entrance Hall. He was so worked up he felt as if his heart had forced its way up his chest and was presently stuck in his throat.

When he reached the massive double doors he paused for what was perhaps the twentieth time, quivering.

What if it was a trick?

He had to be reasonable, though. _Why in Merlin's name should it be a trick?_

But, even if it was, his raging curiosity and desire easily overruled any cautious and sensible thoughts. He was a sixteen year old boy, after all.

He opened the door and slipped outside into the moonlight.

"Evening, my greasy and gorgeous," growled a voice in the shadows to his left.

Snape turned and saw the outline of a boy watching him from the shadows.

_So, this was for real, then…_

He felt a tingle run the length of his spine. It could have been the cold, but it more than likely wasn't…

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

Wrapped in the invisibility cloak and protected by muffling spells, James and Peter doubled up laughing as they watched the proceedings from the safety of a clump of nearby bushes.

"This is easily the best prank we've pulled on the Slimeball so far!" wheezed James. "And Padfoot's acting is brill! It's pure Master class!"

"Yeah! And whoever knew Snivellus was a queer?!" crowed Peter.

They continued watching and giggling. Sirius had finished his hilariously rubbish chat up lines now, and was moving closer to Snape, who amusingly seemed pretty convinced by the whole thing.

"Oh Merlin's balls; what if Padfoot snogs him?" exclaimed Peter. "That would be gross!"

James frowned. "Are you mad? Of course he won't snog him!"

"But I dared him to, anyway!"

James gave his friend an odd look. "Dared him to snog Snape? What the bloody hell for?"

But Peter wasn't listening; he was too busy gasping, and staring agog at something happening straight ahead.

James Potter looked up just in time to catch a full on, raw man-to-man kiss complete with tongues.

The two Marauders could only gaze helplessly as their lip-locked friend proceeded to grab hold of their enemy's tie, pull it loose, and roughly began to unbutton the shirt underneath.

"_Fuck-ing Hell, Padfoot!"_

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

As the two boys fought, and kissed and groped each other on Hogwart's silvery moonlit lawn - both their ties off and shirts unbuttoned - Sirius had to admit; he was quite enjoying himself.

In a dark, twisted, and passionate way.

And perhaps a bit too much.

Even so; Snape still had to pay for deceiving him. This was entirely his bloody fault, anyway.

And he was Snape, after all; whether he did feel so turned on by him or not, _that plain and horrifying truth just wouldn't stand. It was so fucking wrong!_

Less than ten minutes of rough kissing later and they were at the roots of the Whomping Willow.

"See that knot on the tree?" growled Sirius, still slightly out of breath. "If you poke at that with a stick, then the branches will stop moving and we can go down the passageway to the Shack. It's quiet and no one will bother us. Perfect."

Snape did so, and the two boys lowered themselves down into the pitch dark hole.

"You lead the way, I'll follow," whispered Sirius, watching incredulously as his Slytherin companion blindly took his advice and began to advance into the tunnel.

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

"What's he up to now, Prongs? I can't see over these damn bushes!" complained Peter.

"Grow a few inches then," replied James tetchily. "As for what's going on, well, I'm not sure, they've gone right over by the Whomping…_shit…Merlin, no. Oh no, Padfoot, that's gone much too far!"_

Whipping off the invisibility cloak James jumped across the bushes and barrelled across the moonlit lawn. He was met midway by a bounding black dog, his tail furiously wagging and his tongue lolling out. It looked as if Sirius found something highly amusing.

"Sirius you bloody idiot!" hissed James. "Go back in there and get him, the joke's gone too far now!"

Sirius the dog, however, seemed hardly in the mood to see sense. Instead he raced across the lawn to jump and gambol around Peter, who was doubled up laughing and also didn't seem to care about how stupid a prank his friend had just pulled.

James ran as fast as he could over to the tunnel and peered down it. This was very dangerous indeed; he didn't normally go down the passageway on Remus's transformation nights, he normally left that to Sirius to bring him out. His stag animagus form made him relatively safe in a werewolf's presence, but it was much too tall to get down the passage.

He would just have to go down in human form and risk being bitten...

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

"Caught these four fightin' an' bein' bloody stupid down by the Whompin' Willow, 'eadmaster," reported Hagrid angrily. "I should think with their frien' bein' what 'e is at full moon they'd 'ave known better!"

After Hagrid had left his office, the Headmaster sat up stiffly and peered gravely over his spectacles at the row of students who had just been presented to him; three standing, and one perched weakly on the edge of his office chair.

"Could someone please enlighten me as to what you four were doing outside in the grounds at this hour?"

The very dishevelled and rather ill-looking Slytherin was the first to speak.

"Black was trying to kill me, sir!" he seethed, his black eyes flashing. He pointed at Sirius with a quivering finger. "And how was I to know there was a murderous, filthy Werewolf down the end of that tunnel? But Potter knew too, didn't he – or he'd have never been so desperate to drag me back!"

"Ah, I see," replied Dumbledore calmly.

Snape stared incredulously back at him. "You already know?"

The Headmaster met his student's accusing glare. "Yes I did, and may I inform you that the murderous Werewolf does happen to be a fellow classmate of yours, Severus, and that he cannot help his condition," he added gently. "He deserves to be educated as much as any other wizarding child, and I have taken steps to ensure that he is."

Snape's face turned brick red as he swiftly pieced two and two together. "Well I could have guessed it would be the missing Marauder," he snarled. "No wonder the boy looks like a vagrant!"

Dumbledore ignored the last comment, and instead turned a grave face to the three young Gryffindors stood before him. His ice blue eyes fixed on the tallest boy.

"Is this true, Sirius?"

Sirius Black shifted his body weight from one foot to the other, and scuffed his toe of one of his boots against the floor. "More or less, yeah."

Sirius looked briefly up into the Headmaster's eyes, but quickly looked away as they began to bore into him.

_Why was it the man always gave the impression of being able to read people's minds?_

Dumbledore's eyes returned to bore down into Severus Snape's. The boy raised his head and met his gaze, unflinching. This came as a surprise to the Headmaster.

"I know what you are doing, Sir, and I'm not lying to you," said the boy suddenly.

"No," replied Dumbledore thoughtfully, frowning. "And I don't believe you would."

The Gryffindor boys peered quizzically at the pair. "What are you doing, Sir?" asked James curiously.

Dumbledore didn't reply. Instead, he stood and walked around to one of his shelves to retrieve a book. All four boys watched him.

Walking back round to the front of his desk he presented the book – which had a black leather cover with a golden eye embossed on the front – to Snape.

"If you are truly interested in improving those skills tenfold, you may find this book very useful," he said quietly to the baffled boy, before turning to the others, a grave expression on his face once more.

"As for you three; James, Sirius, Peter. This misadventure is most serious indeed. A student could have been killed tonight. In future may I recommend you not venture into the school grounds after dark. I will speak with Professor McGonagall and request that she arrange a month's worth of detentions for each of you."

Snape jumped immediately to his feet, black eyes flashing.

"_Misadventure? They tried to damn well murder me!" _he shrieked, his face livid. "And only a month's worth of detentions? They should be expelled! But _oh, no just because they are bloody Gryffindors!_"

The look on the Headmaster's face seemed to show he had expected this outburst. He turned to peer at the irate Slytherin; his blue eyes suddenly quite cold. "I suggest you leave the punishments to me, and keep your judgement on the matter to yourself, Mr Snape," he replied quietly. "Or I may just consider informing your Head of House about your extracurricular Potion brewing habits."

At this threat Snape visibly paled, and looked quickly away, quivering with barely contained rage. James and Wormtail both took the opportunity to glare daggers at him. Detention was going to take up all their spare time for the next month, but there would still be plenty of opportunities to hex the bastard during class…

However, Dumbledore had to raise an eyebrow when he noticed that Sirius Black didn't care to glare at the Slytherin like his friends did. He noted that the boy was instead staring straight down at the floor, fidgeting with a button on his cuff, and looking more than a little hot under the collar…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Later on, curled up in a dungeon bed and still seething from the injustices of earlier, Severus Snape vowed no one would ever, _ever_ trick him by playing his emotional weaknesses ever again.

_Oh, no. There were potions that would quite easily see to that._

**o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o**

**Postscript…**

Sirius Black was having trouble sleeping. _Again_. He watched glumly as the dark, tattered hangings of the four poster bed swayed in a draught above him. It had been many, many years since he had last spent time in this bedroom. It used to be his as a teenager, and still looked much like it did before he decided to desert his family and move in with James.

It brought back memories of those tense years. Old memories of his overbearing mother and proud father, their ideologies, their Dark Arts books in the library with their grotesque pictures and booby-trap curses, the miserable excuse for a House Elf…

His eyes narrowed. God, how he hated this place. Of course it was marginally better than Azkaban, but not by much…

If only James were here now; he'd have something choice to say about the matter, about how bloody ironic it was that Grimmauld Place was now the Order's Headquarters.

Come to think about it, he'd have an awful lot to say about what happened in the past twenty four hours too.

_Fucking Occlumency indeed._

Dumbledore was truly going insane if he expected Harry to be taught anything else by that slimy two-faced git.

Sirius gritted his teeth as he recalled how Snape seemed to take great care to inflect the words "_External penetration"_ when explaining Occlumency to Harry.

_The dirty little bastard._

_And how dare the man call him coward! _How bloody rich was that? Considering what he did all those years ago…slithering about behind everyone's backs as usual, too afraid to be a man about it and admit he was queer…

As far as he could see he was still in the closet now. Unless he'd finally faced himself and was busy shagging Death Eaters behind everyone's backs, of course.

Of course if Snape had ever asked him when they were teenagers he would have laughed in his face in response anyway; especially with James around.

As for now? Twenty years later?

_Well, there was no bloody chance in hell._

Even if he did still have the occasional erotic dream about him.

Even if _he'd just awoken_ from an erotic dream about him.

Sirius turned on to his side and scowled as he felt himself flushing red.

_Oh, he hoped to hell Snape wouldn't ever, ever, find out._

THE END


End file.
